The Korean government said on Monday it will look into whether a new national park under construction in northeastern China includes symbols that falsely represent the history between the two countries.
The Chinese province of Jilin on April 20 began work to transform a fortress built by the ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryeo into a large-scale national park by October.
Among some 20 envisioned facilities is a set of bronze statues that show a king of Balhae, which succeeded Goguryeo in 698, receiving a letter from envoys of Tang Dynasty on bended knee, the Segye Ilbo newspaper reported.
“A ministry official arrived there on April 18 to look around the site and learned that park construction would get under way. But we have yet to confirm any possible plan for such statues. We’ll look into it and take appropriate measures if there’s a problem,” Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson Han Hye-jin said in a media briefing.
The 200 million yuan ($31.4 million) program is deemed part of the country’s so-called Northeast Project, which is designed to help reinforce China’s claim that the northeastern region has been under its rule throughout history.
The region ― what is now northern Korea and southern Manchuria ― has often been a source of diplomatic tension between Seoul and Beijing, since China regards Goguryeo and Balhae as its former vassal states.
In November, the Korean government remonstrated against a documentary aired by China’s state-run CCTV that contained a scene in which Dae Jo-yeong, Balhae founder and a former Goguryeo general, drops to his knees before a Tang ambassador.
Controversy erupted again early this month when China included fortifications erected by the two early empires in the Great Wall area to conclude that the ancient bulwark is 21,196 kilometers long, more than twice as long as its previous measurement.
Goguryeo lasted from B.C. 37 to A.D. 668 and is considered a golden age that produced a multitude of distinguished scholars and Buddhist divines. The modern name of Korea also derives from the kingdom.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
